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I just got done with my GMAT today and I am proud to join the 710 club I got 49 (90%) on math and 39 (89%) on the verbal section.

I am quite happy with my score. I will post the details after having some lunch, starving right now but wanted to share the news with GMAT club as I absolutely could not have done it without this fabulous group!

Congratulation Gayathri! For someone who called himself newbie just 2 months ago, you really rocked the GMAT! You involvement with the club and hard work really paid off! I dearly wish you all the best and again, stick to the club and come back here every now and then. _________________

Its been quite a journey. First and foremost thanks to every single meber in this club who has either directly or indirectly helped with my score. Praetorian, BB and others thanks for this wonderful forum. My personal opinion, we dont need a coaching class if we work hard on this forum! Paul, you were a great inspiration, I took the liberty to call on you every now then when I was in trouble with some concepts. Qhoc, you dont know how much you have helped me not only with your posts but also with your miracle tool - the practice grid!! Your practice grid was perfect, you should be charging money for that thing Praveen and Saurabh thanks to all your heated debates and discussions, they were very helpful! Doggita, I found your CR questtions very challenging and helped me get in to GMAT mode. Pragati and Vasudha thanks to you girls for all the moral support. Actually, thanks to every member who has been active in this forum.

I will try to structure this post as shown below that way you dont have to read the whole post. 1. Background
2. Preparation
3. Material
4. Test Day
5. Things I would do different were I to take the test again!

1. Background:Indian, female, 27 and name Gayathri, if you had not guessed by now! I have a MS in EE and 3 yrs work experience in product marketing and product management. Had decided in my mind that I wanted to do an MBA in 2001 but never really got around to it until two months ago due to lack of time. Most recently I was working for a start up working 12- 13 hr days only to find out a year later that the company was unable to secure any funding and so I was back in the job market again After taking a good weeklong vacation, I figured this might be the best time to take care of my MBA dream by attacking the first hurdle in the admission process - GMAT

2. Preparation & MaterialOverall prep time approximately two months not including the two one week breaks in between. I started thinking seriously about GMAT the last week of october and went about procuring all the materials for the same.

I wanted to set out a schedule but unfortunately that never materialized the way I was hoping it would. I realized that job hunting can be a full time process by itself and some of my other commitments did not let me follow a fixed scheduule. My rough schedule was about 3-4 hrs during the week and almost none during the weekends. The only constant whether I picked up and studied or not was my involvement at GMAT club. I made it a regimen to work on most of the problems posted on the club. I felt that going over all the posts gave me practice in every type of problem: ratios, number theory, inequalities, probability etc. Also looking at the different variations of CR's gave me a general idea of the way the questions are framed and what kind of answer choices to expect. Another important thing I realized thanks to GMAT club again was explaining my answers reinforced my thinking. As a side note to everyone on the forum, when you post your answer PLEASE try to explain your answer choices not only does it benefit other people who are trying to understand the problem, but it also helps clear your own thinking when you write it down. Infact I have changed my answer several times as I tried to explain my choice, because I would realize that I had missed a step or made a silly mistake when trying to calculate in my head. I also tackled the math challenges in this forum. They were quite tough but helped me a lot with some of the basics, which tend to get rusty over time.

I registered for the GMAT only on Dec 26th. Since I was not planning on applying to schools this year, I decided I did not want to rush myself! Biggest mistake I made Having no solid deadline did nothing but hinder my preparation. When I first started to think about the GMAT I decided to take the test in late nov or early dec, but not having registered, I kept pushing it off and that did not help structure my preparation. In december after the urging of one of our club member Pragati (Ruhi) I started thinking about registering for the exam. I finally registered for the exam on dec 26th and the next day took off went on a week long vacation.

First of the year I was back and, I gradually started stepping up my preparation. Two weeks ago I decided to postpone my job search and get down and dirty with GMAT. I put in almost 7 hrs every day this past two weeks. I identified that my two main weak areas in the exam were SC's and DS. I have never been good at grammar rules, so I decided not to thrust difficult grammar lexicon down my stubborn brain but focus on the basic rules tested by GMAT which are expounded in every single prep book! Besides the actual exam my other biggest problem area was focus. I hate reading on the computer screen and my attention span becomes very limited if I try to read dense material or information that I am not familiar with on the screen, my mind starts to drift. So everynight before going to bed, I would try to focus only on my breathing and try to ignore other thoughts that came to my head. Personally, I found this to be quite useful, I dont know if it was the increased oxygen or wishful thinking. I also tried it everytime before doing RC's and I noticed that in the paper tests I did quite well on RC's with only one or two mistakes.

My Practice Scores:
Unfortunately last week the hard drive in my laptop died and I lost all my data. I lost most of my OG error logs, several of my GMAT links and other files such as the ETS paper tests. Fortunately, since I dont enjoy reading on the computer, I had printed out all of the paper tests before hand. I also lost access to my Kaplan scores as I had to reinstall the CD on another computer. So, the Kaplan scores listed below are from my vague recollection.

So, as you can see from the scores above, they are not a real indicator of the performance in the actual exam. So, dont you use these scores to gauge your capability. Use it primarily as a guide to strengthen your stamina and timing. Btw, the last PowerPrep was the only one in which I actually wrote the AWA essays.

I had started of most of my prep with Kaplan and PR and got to the OG later.

3. MaterialsOfficial Guide (Absolute must)
PR 2005 Cracking the GMAT (the non-cd version with access to online tests)
Kaplan 2005 (Good for math, RC's either made me sleepy or gave me a headache )
Kaplan Math Power (I found this book in the local library, it was useful to brush up basic math concepts)
Kaplan 800 (purchased it last week)
ETS Paper Tests
The handbook of good english by Edward D Johnson (At one time I wanted to write short stories as a hobby and purchased this book for reference! Was very happy to see it come handy in the prep)

4. Test DayThe day before the test, I got up at 6am took the PP2 at 8am to sort of simulate test condition as my actual test was also at 8 in the morning. I reviewed all the questions and the answers. Since I lost access to my error log I went through the last 100 problems in DS and randomly went over sentence correction. I familiarized myself with the template for AWA. That done I reviewed formulas and idioms posted some more CR questions in the forum. After 7, 7.30 pm I stopped studying, went out for dinner, came back got all my id and a couple of snacks ready for D-day. Went to bed thinking positively about GMAT and trying to visualize myself getting a good score.

Test day, got to the center 40 mins ahead of time. I had checked out the location and the parking spots before the test day. So, that took out some part of the stress when I got caught in morning traffic. The test center did not open till 7:30, so reviewed the idioms again. Once I was done with all the formalities, I did not proceed with the test until I wrote down some basic formulas, prime numbers, square and cube values of from 1-10 etc. Then I proceeded to draw a grid for the verbal section with the different answer choices listed on the top, so that I can cross out answer choices the minute I knew they were wrong. This was useful to avoid wasting time by rereading choices I had already eliminated.

Then I drew out a timing grid as follows to help me keep track of time. I found this quite helpful.

This worked well for me you may wish adapt something along these lines to ensure that you are on track with time.

Only after I wrote down everything I thought I wanted on the scratch paper did I start the test. Got analysis of an argument first, it was not tough, followed by another easy Issue essay. I was able to finish both the essays atleast 4-5 mins ahead of time. That helped me to read it over and look for typos and other errors. I tried not to think too much about the outcome and just tried to have the notion that I am just taking another practice test and that the scores did NOT matter.

I took both the breaks, after AWA and quant. This helped me to stretch drink some water and also avoid the eye strain from constantly looking at screen. It also helped relieve some stress. Then the quant section, it was not very difficult. I probably had two probability (one came quite early on, 3rd question I think) but both were very easy, nothing compared to the type of problems posted on the forum. There was one permutation combination, one number line, one absolute value and may be one or two inequality. I would say the level was a little above OG but not significantly hard.

The verbal started with a an SC but the second question was an RC. I had 4 RC's. Three about 40 lines and the final one which came around the thirtieth question and was the longest about 80 lines. The CR's and Sc were along the lines of OG.

5. Things I would have done differentKnowing what I know now, there are quite a few things I would have done differently. For one, I would have first registered for the exam early on. After you pay $225, the date becomes quite concrete and is not flexible. That would have also provided me with some structure and helped me put together a schedule that I would have probably adhered to more sincerely. When I started the prep I was all about taking practice tests without doing the pre or the post work, i.e; I would take a test and not review the questions after the test until a week later by which time I would have forgotten all the questions. I was focussed more on how many tests I took as opposed to the quality. I would strongly urge everyone to take the time and review ALL the questions after taking a test, not just one's you got wrong. I also over zealously gathered material which in the end I never had the time to study. Some of the material that I had but never really used, such as the the 10 official LSAT tests, Kaplan LSAT ( I got both of these from a friend who had taken his LSAT last year), 885 SC and CR megabank from this site. In retrospect, I think the key is not how much material you have but to focus on few material and understand all the concepts (but do not memorize the answers). The OG with over 200 questions in each section is a great resource. Tough questions from different sources always got discussed in the forum and so that was great resource. I would also not have focussed or worried as much about permutation combination and probability. If you know the basics you could easily tackle them. The questions discussed in this forum are several degrees harder than the one I saw on the exam. May be the tough ones are reserved for the >750 scorers However, I should have probably spent some more time on absolute values, inequalities etc as I think they were the ones that took me more than two minutes to solve in the exam (again, not because they wer very hard but because I was not very confident). The challenges on this forum were great, I remember seeing one on the exam that was quite similar to one from the challenge.

Finally, think positively, go in with an attitude that you know all the concepts and all you have to do is recall it from your brain. Do, make use of the break to stretch your legs etc. I think I used only 4 sheets of paper so I did not need any extra but, if you think you will need replacements the best time is to do it during the break. Also, at times I found the typing noises from other keyboards annoying, if noise is an issue ask for ear plugs, I believe the the folks at the test center will provide it if you ask for it. I am not comfortable with them, so I did not ask for them.

I will definitely hang around. GMAT club has become a part of my daily routine and would be difficult to let go. If I can help in any way let me know. I put together a compilation of notes for SC's from diffrerent sources such as GMAT club, testmagic, webster and few others, I would be happy to pass it on to the folks at the club here.

Goodluck to everyone and thanks for all your support, I could not have done this without this forum, I am glad that I found GMAt club a week after I started preparing.

Gayathri:
I've been following your posts. Its a great Journey made in a quite good amount of time!! Hearty congratulations on entering 7** CLUB. Thats quite an achievement.
Thank you so much for your post with scores. Your scores gave me some life(else I was gasping with my scores in KP) . My G-Day is very near!!!
All the best with your job search and with App process!
sleek

Gayathri: I've been following your posts. Its a great Journey made in a quite good amount of time!! Hearty congratulations on entering 7** CLUB. Thats quite an achievement. Thank you so much for your post with scores. Your scores gave me some life(else I was gasping with my scores in KP) . My G-Day is very near!!! All the best with your job search and with App process!sleek

Thanks sleek04! Dont let the kaplan scores get to you. I would suggest staying away from the Kaplan the week before your test.

Congratulation Gayathri! For someone who called himself newbie just 2 months ago, you really rocked the GMAT! You involvement with the club and hard work really paid off! I dearly wish you all the best and again, stick to the club and come back here every now and then.

Thanks Paul, just like for so many others in this forum, you have been a great motivation. Its nice to see that you are still making the time for evryone in the forum. Hats off to you!

Congratulations on your score, Gayathri. Your profile if quite competitive for the top tier schools and a GMAT of 710is only going to reinforce that.

Good luck with your applications. Which schools are you targeting? I'd suggest you visit the BW forum and read blogs of various applicants on http://mbaleague.blogspot.com/ It's a great idea to start a blog of your own - just to serve the purpose of a sounding board.